美联储由在华盛顿的联邦储备局和分布美国各地区的12个联邦储备银行组成。美联储主要的货币政策由联邦储备局委员和联邦储备银行的主席共同参与制定。以避免政策决策权过于集中在少数几个地区（如华盛顿和纽约）。
美国第一银行和第二银行当初因不被大众接受而最后被迫关闭，其中一个重要原因就是这两个银行都位于美国东北部的费城，被很多人认为主要服务于东北部的一些富豪商人，而不是所有美国人。美联储在成立时认真吸取了这个教训。
在组织形式上，美联储采用的是联邦政府机构加非营利性机构的双重组织结构，从而避免了货币政策完全集中在联邦政府手里。美联储把12个联邦储备银行设立成非营利机构而非政府机构的一个初衷就是希望制定货币政策时能同时考虑政府和私营部门的声音。虽然位于华盛顿的联邦储备局是美国联邦政府的一部分，但12家联邦储备银行不属于联邦政府机构，而是非营利性私营组织。但需要强调，联邦储备银行不同于一般的私营组织。联邦储备银行并不以营利为目的，而与联邦储备局一起承担美国中央银行的公共职能。
12个联邦储备银行的总部分别位于波士顿（Boston）、纽约（New York）、费城（Philadelphia）、克里夫兰（Cleve-land）、里士满（Richmond）、亚特兰大（Atlanta）、芝加哥（Chicago）、圣路易斯（St. Louis）、明尼阿波利斯（Min-neapolis）、堪萨斯城（Kansas City）、达拉斯（Dallas）和旧金山（San Francisco）。而每个联邦储备银行在辖区内又设有分支机构（branches）。比如达拉斯联储总部在达拉斯，但同时在休斯敦、圣安东尼奥和艾尔帕所设有分部。
下图显示了12个联邦储备银行的总部和各自管理的辖区。由于每个联邦储备银行管理一个大区，这些银行往往被简称为地区联储。很显然，多数联邦储备银行分布在美国的东北部地区。这主要是由于美联储1913年成立时，美国的经济重心主要集中于东北部。每一个联邦储备银行的代号由一个英文字母和一个数字组成。比如波士顿联储是第一个成立的联邦储备银行，代号为1A。第二个成立的是纽约联储，代号是2B，依此类推。达拉斯联储是第11个成立的，因此代号为11K。在1美元的钞票上，印着不同联邦储备银行的名称和代号，表明这些1美元纸钞是从哪个地区流向市场的。
美联储货币政策的最高决策机构包括联邦储备局的7名执行委员（Members of the Board of Governors）和12名联邦储备银行的主席（Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks）。美联储最重要的货币政策被称作公开市场操作，日常说的美联储公开市场会议（或者议息会议）就是为制定这个政策而召开的。公开市场政策由华盛顿的联邦储备局和各个地区的联邦储备银行共同制定。美联储的12个联邦储备银行是相对独立的机构，比如联邦储备银行的主席可以担任公开市场委员会的委员，在担任委员期间，联邦储备银行的主席与联邦储备局主席、联邦储备局的其他委员拥有同等的投票权。
联邦储备局的7名执行委员由主席、副主席及其他5位委员组成。这7名执行委员必须全部由总统提名，经过国会确认后才能上任。每个执行委员的任期为14年，到任后不能连任，注意这里的14年任期指的是执行委员的任期，和美联储主席任期并不是一个概念。执行委员上任后，总统没有权利罢免这些委员。如果需要罢免他们，必须有国会2/3的成员投票通过才可以。
同时，《联邦储备法案》规定这7名执行委员的任期需要间隔两年。比如：如果第一个委员的任期从2012年开始，那么第二个委员的任期从2014年开始，第三个委员的任期从2016年开始，依此类推。因此在美国总统4年的任期内最多只有两个执行委员的任期结束，需要由总统决定新人选是谁。美联储这种任期安排很大程度上限制了总统对委员会的控制能力。联邦储备局的执行委员可以被总统提名为美联储主席（Chair）或者副主席（Vice Chair），每次提名任期为4年。总统提名主席和副主席后，也必须经过国会批准才能上任。一旦上任，主席和副主席在任期内同样不能被总统单独罢免，必须获得国会2/3的票数才能通过。
另外，美联储的主席和副主席同时也是联邦储备局7位执行委员之一。主席和副主席的任期与他们同时担任的执行委员任期不冲突。即使主席和副主席的任期结束，如果执行委员的任期还没结束，他们仍然可以继续作为执行委员。伯南克作为联邦储备局执行委员的14年任期到2020年才结束。如果他愿意，即使不担任主席了，仍然可以继续作为7位执行委员之一，参与制定美国货币政策。在担任执行委员期间，他和联储主席享有同样的投票权利。从这些制度设计可以看出，美国总统虽然是美国最高行政长官，但对美联储货币政策的干预能力其实非常有限。
联邦储备系统的收入主要来自以下几个方面：
1、通过公开市场购入美国政府债券的利息收入。
2、外汇投资的收入。
3、向各种存款机构、 商业银行贷款获得的利息收入。
4、向存款机构、商业银行提供服务收取的报酬（比如为它们提供的支票结算，资金周转，自动化票据交易所等服务。在支付会员银行股息以后，联邦储备系统须将余下的收入上缴美国财政部，这大约占了全部联邦储备银行净收入的94%（具体的收入支出情况，美国联邦储备委员会将在其年报中详细的说明）。如果一个联邦储备银行因为某种原因被清算，在偿还了所有的债务后，剩余的财产将被移交给美国财政部。
为美国的中央银行，美联储从美国国会获得权利。它被看作是独立的中央银行因其决议无需获得美国总统或者立法机关的任何高层的批准，它不接受美国国会的拨款，其成员任期也跨越多届总统及国会任期。其财政独立是由其巨大的赢利性保证的，主要归功于其对政府公债的所有权。它每年向政府返还几十亿美元。当然，美联储服从于美国国会的监督，后者定期观察其活动并通过法令来改变其职能。同时，美联储必须在政府建立的经济和金融政策的总体框架下工作。
这是美联储，接下来是美元。
在1792年，美元采用了金银复本位制，按照当年颁布的铸币法案，一美元折合371.25格令（24.057克）纯银或24.75格令（1.6038克）纯金。直到1873年。而一美元价值的24.057克白银，即大约相等于一枚西班牙银圆。因美国政府甚少铸造一美元的硬币，因此在南北战争前，西班牙银圆一直是美国主要流通的货币之一，美国各官、私银行亦多以西班牙银圆作储备，美国人大多用钞票兑换西班牙银圆。这个在我看过的书里有。
好了这就是了，接下来是原创内容：
The Federal Reserve consists of the FederalReserve Bureau in Washington and 12 Federal Reserve banks scattered throughoutthe United States. The Fed's main monetary policy is set by the members of theFederal Reserve Board and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. To avoidtoo much concentration of decision-making power in a few regions (such asWashington and New York).
One of the main reasons why the First andSecond banks were closed was because they were located in Philadelphia, in thenortheast of the United States. They were thought by many to serve wealthybusinessmen in the Northeast rather than all Americans. The Fed took thislesson to heart when it was created.
In the form of organization, the FederalReserve adopts the dual organization structure of federal government andnon-profit organization, so as to avoid the monetary policy completelyconcentrated in the hands of the federal government. One of the reasons the Fedcreated the 12 Federal Reserve banks as nonprofits rather than as governmentagencies was to consider both the government and the private sector in settingmonetary policy. While the Federal Reserve in Washington is part of the U.S.Federal government, the 12 Federal Reserve banks are not federal governmentagencies but private non-profit organizations. But it's important to emphasizethat the Federal Reserve Bank is not a private organization. The FederalReserve Bank does not operate for profit. It shares the public functions of thecentral bank of the United States with the Federal Reserve.
The 12 Federal Reserve banks areheadquartered in Boston and New York York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond,Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis (Min-Neapolis), Kansas City, Dallasand San Francisco. And each Federal Reserve bank has branches in its district.The Dallas Fed, for example, is headquartered in Dallas but has offices inHouston, SAN Antonio and El Pa.
The chart below shows the headquarters ofthe 12 Federal Reserve banks and their respective jurisdictions. Because eachFederal Reserve bank manages a large region, these banks are often referred tosimply as regional Fed banks. Obviously, most of the Federal Reserve banks arelocated in the northeast of the United States. This is largely due to the factthat when the Fed was created in 1913, America's economic centre of gravity wasmainly in the North-East. The code name for each Federal Reserve bank consistsof a letter and a number. For example, the Boston Fed was the first FederalReserve bank to be established, code-named 1A. The second was the New York Fed,code 2B, and so on. The Dallas Fed was the eleventh to be established, hencethe code name 11K. The names and code names of the different Federal Reservebanks are printed on the $1 bills, indicating the region from which the $1bills came to market.
The highest decision-making body formonetary policy of the Federal Reserve consists of the seven Members of theBoard of Governors and the 12 Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks. TheFed's most important monetary policy is called open market operations, and theFed open market meetings (or rate-setting meetings) are held to set this policy.Open market policy is set by the Federal Reserve in Washington and the regionalFederal Reserve banks. The 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the Federal Reserve arerelatively independent institutions. For example, the chairman of the FederalReserve Bank can serve as a member of the Open Market Committee. During theterm of the committee, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank has the samevoting rights as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and other members ofthe Federal Reserve Board.
The Fed's seven executive members arecomposed of the chairman, the Vice Chairman, and five other members. All sevenmembers must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the NationalAssembly before taking office. Each executive member is elected for a 14-yearterm and is not eligible for re-election. Note that the 14-year term refers tothe term of the executive member, which is not the same term as the term of thechairman of the Federal Reserve. The president has no power to remove theexecutive members after they take office. To remove them, two-thirds of themembers of Congress must vote to do so.
Also, the Federal Reserve Act requires theseven executive Board members to serve two-year terms apart. For example, ifthe first commissioner's term begins in 2012, then the second commissioner'sterm begins in 2014, the third commissioner's term begins in 2016, and so on.Therefore, during the four-year term of the U.S. president, there are only twoexecutive members whose terms will expire, and the president has to decide whothe new members will be. The term structure of the Fed largely limits thepresident's ability to control the committee. Executive members of the FederalReserve Board may be nominated by the President to serve as either Chair orVice Chair for a four-year term. After the president nominates the chairman andvice chairman, they must also be approved by Congress. Once in office, thepresident and vice president can also not be removed by the president aloneduring their term of office, but must be approved by a two-thirds vote ofCongress.
In addition, the Fed's chairman and vicechairman are also among the Fed's seven executive members. The term of officeof the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen does not conflict with the term of office ofthe Executive members they concurrently hold. Even if the term of office of theChairman and Vice Chairman ends, if the term of office of the Executive membersdoes not end, they may continue as executive members. Bernanke's 14-year termas an executive member of the Federal Reserve does not expire until 2020. If hechooses, he can continue to set U.S. monetary policy as one of the sevenmembers of the executive committee, even if he is no longer chairman. As anexecutive member, he has the same voting rights as the Fed chairman. From theseinstitutional designs, it can be seen that although the president is the topexecutive in the United States, his ability to intervene the Federal Reserve'smonetary policy is actually very limited.
The Federal Reserve receives its incomefrom the following sources:
1. Interest income from buying U.S.government bonds on the open market.
2. Income from foreign exchange investment.
3. Interest income from loans to variousdepository institutions and commercial banks.
4. Remuneration for services provided todepository institutions and commercial banks (such as check clearing, fundturnover, automated clearing exchange, etc.) After paying dividends to memberbanks, the Federal Reserve pays the remaining income to the U.S. Treasury,which accounts for about 94 percent of the net income of the Federal Reservebanks. (The Federal Reserve will detail the income expenditure in its annualreport.) If a Federal Reserve bank is liquidated for some reason, after alldebts have been paid, the remaining property is turned over to the UnitedStates Treasury.
For the central bank of the United States,the Federal Reserve obtains powers from the United States Congress. It isconsidered an independent central bank because its decisions do not require theapproval of any senior member of the U.S. President or legislature, it does notreceive appropriations from the U.S. Congress, and its membership spansmultiple presidential and congressional terms. Its financial independence isguaranteed by its enormous profitability, thanks largely to its ownership ofgovernment bonds. It returns billions of dollars to the government every year.The Fed, of course, is subject to the oversight of the US Congress, whichregularly observes its activities and changes its functions by decree. At thesame time, the Fed must work within the broad framework of economic andfinancial policy established by the government.
So there's the Fed, and then there's thedollar.
In 1792, the dollar adopted the gold andsilver duplicate system. Under the Coinage Act enacted that year, one dollarwas worth 371.25 ringgit (24.057 grams) of pure silver or 24.75 ringgit (1.6038grams) of pure gold. Until 1873. One dollar is worth 24.057 grams of silver,which is about the same as a Spanish silver circle. Because the United Statesgovernment rarely minted a dollar coin, the Spanish silver dollar was one ofthe main currencies in circulation in the United States before the Civil War.American government and private banks also kept the Spanish silver dollar as areserve, and the United States mostly exchanged its banknotes for Spanishsilver coins. It's in the book I read.
Okay, that's it. Now for original content:
